Theater Talk Reviews Their Events and Guests From The Past Year

This year, we had the pleasure of making the following conversations and performances available to our viewers:

· Billy Elliot's librettist Lee Hall and director Stephen Daldry (shown right with co hosts Michael Riedel and Susan Haskins) explain - in separate half-hour interviews - the process of transferring their beloved film into Billy Elliott: The Musical, the most celebrated show of 2009.

· British journalists Baz Bamigboye of London's Daily Mail and Charles Spencer of London's Telegraph assess new Broadway productions, including Shrek. Speed-The-Plow with Jeremy Piven & Raul Esparza and Billy Elliot.

· Theater critics John Heilpern (left) of The New York Observer and Vanity Fair, Mike Kuchwara of The AP Wire, and Jacques le Sourd, of CBS Radio bemoan the state of journalism and their profession. This episode was taped three days after le Sourd was laid off from his job of 35 years as Gannett's drama critic. Mr. le Sourd will not be replaced; the positioning of theater critic having been eliminated by the newspaper chain.

· Director Garry Hynes and actress Marie Mullen of Ireland's Druid Theatre talk about the Atlantic Theater's revival of Martin McDonagh's play The Cripple of Inishmaan.

· Actor Christopher Plummer (right) discusses his best-selling memoir, In Spite of Myself with Bloomberg News critic and Plummer fan, John Simon.

· Playwright Gina Gionfriddo analyzes her new comedy, Becky Shaw, based in part on Thackeray's Vanity Fair, at Second Stage.

· The Guthrie Theater's Artistic Director Joe Dowling, actor Charles Keating, and members of the Guthrie staff guide us through the history and the beautiful new building of this venerable 50-year-old institution in Minneapolis, founded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie.

· 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage (left in Theater Talk's greenroom) and actress Saidah Arrika Ekulona tackle the grave subject of Ruined, Nottage's searing drama, about brutality towards women in the war-torn Republic of The Congo.

· Music historians David Jasen and Robert Kimball examine the rise and fall of 'Tin Pan Alley,' the center of the music industry at the beginning of the 20th Century.

· Critics John Simon of Bloomberg News and Linda Winer of Newsday struggle to decipher the work and mind of recently-deceased playwright and dramatic prophet, Harold Pinter.

· Comic actors Jackie Hoffman and Richard Kind (shown right with director Elvin Badger) perform excerpts from Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words, the Drama Desk Award-winning "Unique Theatrical Experience of 2009." They are joined on the panel by their co-stars, the show's producers Eugene Pack and Dayle Reyfel.

· Writer/director Arthur Laurents explains why he revived the 1957 musicAl West Side Story this year, and reminisces about his complicated relationships with the other members of the show's original creative team: Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins and Stephen Sondheim.

· Actor Geoffrey Rush explicates Exit the King, the revival of Eugene Ionesco's absurdist farce, in which he starred and collaborated in translating from the original French.

· Angela Lansbury (left, preparing on our set) now appearing in A Little Night Music, looks back at her lengthy career and how at age 84 she maintains the vitality that has made her a great star (and won her a 5th Tony for Blithe Spirit). YouTube: "Send it across the footlights."

· A tribute to the genius of Oscar Hammerstein II features Theodore S. Chapin of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and lyricist Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, Finding Neverland). Liz Callaway and Andrew Samonsky perform songs Hammerstein wrote with Richard Rodgers, including "It Might as Well as Well Be Spring," "The Gentleman is a Dope" and "You've Got to Be Taught."

· Actress Jane Fonda expounds upon her role in Moisés Kaufman's 33 Variations, playing a scholar obsessed with Beethoven and afflicted with the devastating disease ALS.

· The awesome award-winning cast of God of Carnage: James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis share the experience of their collaboration in Yasmina Reza's award-winning comedy. YouTube Highlight: "Playing French"

· Hair librettist/lyricist James Rado, composer Galt MacDermot and current company member Gavin Creel disclose the goings-on backstage at both the original and the hit revival of the world-renowned "tribal love-rock musical," now on Broadway. YouTube Highlight: Rado, Creel, & MacDermots perform "Where Do I Go?"

· Actresses Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter interpret their roles as Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I, respectively, in Schiller's classic drama, Mary Stuart.

· Adam Feldman of Time Out/NY, John Heilpern of the NY Observer and Vanity Fair, Howard Kissel of The Daily News, Chris Companek of Flavorpill, Mike Kuchwara of The Associated Press, Jacques le Sourd of CBS Radio, John Simon of Bloomberg News, Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Post, Linda Winer of Newsday and Matt Windman of AM New York join Michael Riedel
(here emulating the beloved Broadway character Shrek) to review notable productions of the season.

· Director Terry Kinney & actor Thomas Sadoski (left) address disputes surrounding Neil LaBute's Reasons to be Pretty, including the producers' decision to allow the audience to text during the show.

· Actress Tovah Feldshuh (left) and critic Adam Feldman of Time Out/NY (and President of The New York Drama Critics Circle) debate the factual accuracy of Irena's Vow, the drama about the Holocaust rescuer Irena Gut Opdyke in which Feldshuh starred this spring on Broadway.

· Comedian/commentators Lewis Black of The Daily Show and Nancy Giles of CBS Sunday Morning remember their early years in NY's cabaret scene and discuss their work mentoring young people with the 52nd St. Project. You Tube: Lewis Black on Yale Drama School

· British director Matthew Warchus describes the process of directing two of the most popular plays of the season, God of Carnage and Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests.

· Our panel of prophetic pundits: Jesse Green, of New York Magazine, Michael Musto, of The Village Voice (right), and Patrick Pacheco, of the LATimes, provide us with previews of each season's theatrical offerings, plus predictions of who will win the major awards and why.

· The popular AndrewAndrew of East Village Radio (left) file reports from the red carpets of The Tony's, Bye Bye Birdie, and Dreamgirls.

· Playwright Mart Crowley, actor Laurence Luckinbill and Michael Musto celebrate The Boys in the Band, Crowley's groundbreaking 1967 drama, one of the first to openly deal with the lives of gay men.

· Director David Cromer, critic Jeremy McCarter of Newsweek, and writer Tappan Wilder probe the importance of Our Town, Thornton Wilder's iconic American play.

· Director Bob Avian, producer John Breglio and actress Charlotte d'Amboise reflect on the arduous casting process for the 2006 revival of Michael Bennett's musical, A Chorus Line, which is the subject of Breglio's newly released documentary film Every Little Step.

· We explore The Players Club with Howard Kissel, author of New York Theater Walks, and Club Executive Director John Martello. The landmark Gramercy Square mansion, once home to Edwin Booth (pictured right, playing Hamlet in 1866, the year after his brother assassinated The President), now holds fascinating memorabilia of the actor's life and times, as well as the Club's world-famous portrait collection of prominent 19th and 20th-century stars of the stage. (Photo courtesy of The Players Club Archive.)

· Theater historian/lyricist Michael Korie and librettist Arthur Perlman delve into the life and career of the lyricist/librettist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg and explicate his most beloved musical Finian's Rainbow.

· Director/choreographer Bill T. Jones, actor Sahr Ngaujah (left) and producer Stephen Hendel detail the process of creating their musical FELA!, based on the life of Nigerian activist and Afro-Beat superstar, Fela Kuti.

· Jordan Roth, the new President of The Jujamcyn Theaters (and at 33 years-old, the youngest of Broadway's major players), speculates on how Broadway will change in the coming decade.

· Illusionist Matthew Holtzclaw, with actors Chuck Cooper and Christopher Fitzgerald of Finian's Rainbow perform some magic inspired by the show. YouTube: Magical Moment

· Critic Charles Isherwood (shown right, in T.Talk's greenroom) of The New York Times and humorist Paul Rudnick appreciate the mastery of George S. Kaufman, co-writer of The Royal Family, as do actors Tony Roberts and John Glover, costars of the recent Broadway revival of the 1927 comedy.

· Actor Jerry Stiller (right), Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan and Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer of Lincoln Center, remember the immortal producer Joseph Papp, the subject of Turan's book, Free For All: Joe Papp, The Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told.

· Musical theater experts Barry Day and Robert Kimball pay tribute to Johnny Mercer, one of the most important lyricists of the 20th Century. Singers Anna Bergman and Steve Ross perform some of Mercer's best-known works, including "Hooray for Hollywood" and "Moon River."

· The eclectic, avant-garde director Richard Foreman and actor Willem Dafoe give insight into the methodology of Idiot Savant, Foreman's latest work at The Public Theater which was a hit of the fall season. YouTube Highlight

· Professor James Shapiro of Columbia University surveys the legacy of Hamlet from the first Hamlet, Richard Burbage, to the recent interpretation on Broadway by Jude Law.

· The uniquely fascinating theater historian/author Ethan Mordden expounds on his riveting biography Florenz Ziegfeld: The Man Who Invented Show Business (shown left with his Follies Girls in a photo courtesy of The Bettman Archive).

· Actors Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles spar over the issues of sexual politics roiling beneath the surface of David Mamet's play Oleanna, in which they starred on Broadway this fall.

· Washington Post critic Peter Marks raves over the Broadway revival of Ragtime, which originated at DC's Kennedy Center.

· The great British playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn discusses the techniques he cultivated to write 73 plays, including My Wonderful Day and The Norman Conquests, both successfully produced in New York this year. YouTube Highlight: "The Childish Side"

· Playwright Theresa Rebeck and actors Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Justin Kirk, and Julie White of Rebeck's new comedy The Understudy at the Laura Pels Theater joke, squabble and share insightful war stories about their characters' stressful lives (as well as their own) as actors.

We thank everyone who participated in and/or watched our series.
We look forward to continuing the show in '10. 

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!